Hand-held string trimmers are commonly used in lawn and yard maintenance both by home owners and professionals. Such trimmers commonly include an electric motor or gasoline engine that rotates a hub from which a string projects. The string is held away from the hub by centrifugal force resulting from the rotation of the hub. Contact of the rapidly moving string with vegetable matter such as grasses or weeds severs the grasses or weeds at the point of contact. The operator controls this cutting action by manually guiding the string trimmer.
The string used by the trimmer is commonly a nylon or other non-metallic monofilament and is worn away by contact with the vegetable matter or other matter such as pavement. Therefore, many string trimmers include a supply of string to replenish the worn away portion of the string projecting from the hub. Such string trimmers commonly contain a semi-automatic or manual mechanism for advancing additional string from the supply to replace that string worn away outside the hub.
However, even in those string trimmers containing an additional supply of string, the supply is eventually exhausted. New string trimmers are commonly sold with a supply of string already installed. When such supply is exhausted, the operator must replenish the supply.
The supply of string is commonly wound upon a removable and replaceable hard plastic spool. The simplest way to replenish the supply of string is to purchase a replacement spool with a new supply of string thereon and substitute this new spool for the empty spool. Pre-wound replacement spools are available and can be purchased; however, they are more expensive than the string alone, since they require the replacement of the otherwise reusable but empty spool. Therefore, this method, although simple, faces the disadvantage of high cost.
Bulk string is also available and the trimmer operator may reload his empty spool for continued use of the string trimmer. The operator may leave the empty spool on the trimmer and wind the string about the spool. However, this method may twist the string as it is wound onto the spool, potentially causing the string to jam and not advance to replace worn string during subsequent operation of the tool.
The spool may also be removed from the trimmer and rotated by hand to wind string onto it; however, this method is quite awkward and slow.
Thus, there is a need for a device to which an empty spool can be mounted to wind replacement string onto the empty reusable spool. However, there is very little commonality in the sizes of the various spools offered by differing manufacturers and even among different models offered by the same manufacturer. Therefore, such a device must be able to adapt to the various different sizes and driving mechanisms of the various possible spools available.
Various spool winding devices have been developed. For example, Crow U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,286 discloses a spool rewinder in which a spool is held against a frame by a manually rotatable, spring-biased gripping plate. Prongs on this gripping plate engage cooperative openings in the spool to rotate it when the plate is rotated.
Batson U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,048 discloses a spool winding device that is adaptable for use as a power drill attachment. In the Batson device, the spool is held about a shaft between a cone member and a ring member by a biasing spring that urges the ring member toward the cone member. The entire apparatus may be rotated by an electric drill. A similar device is available from Briarwood Industries, P.O. Box 1859, Kilgore, Tex. 75662.
Crow U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,086 also discloses a spool rewinder in which a spool placed about a manually rotatable shaft is held against a shoulder by a compressible disk urged against the opposite side of the spool. This patent also discloses the device of the above mentioned Crow U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,286.
Other devices have been developed for winding fishing line onto spools or reels. Rauch U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,136 discloses a fishing line loader apparatus in which a spool may be mounted on a manually rotatable shaft between two disks, one of which is provided with an elastomeric bearing surface to restrict rotation of the spool relative to the shaft.
Jorgensen U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,155 discloses a winding device for transferring fishing line from a storage spool to a spool of a fishing reel in which a reel is clamped between two opposed cone-shaped plugs which are fixedly retained on a manually rotatable shaft passing through the center of the plugs and the reel.
Haddock U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,418 discloses a fishing line applicator for holding a supply reel while the line is wound onto the fishing reel by that reel's own winding mechanism. The device mounts to and rotates with a revolving pickup cylinder of the reel.
Tengesdal U.S. Pat. No. 2,692,093, and Stolhandske U.S. Pat. No. 782,882 disclose hand held fishing line reels Allen U.S Pat. No. 2,434,479 discloses a hand held fishing line reel assembly for use without a rod in which the two sides of the reel are cone shaped rather than parallel.
Wait, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,090 discloses a reel structure for retrieving and discharging line with multiple diameter hubs and means for steadying the reel structure against the body of the operator. Swearingen U.S. Pat. No. 1,862,611 discloses a hand reel.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide a spool winding apparatus that will easily transfer non-metallic line to a removable and reusable spool such as is used in a string trimmer.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a spool winding apparatus that will adapt to various sizes of string trimmer spools provided by the various manufacturers and models of such string trimmers.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a spool winding apparatus that will transfer non-metallic line to a spool with minimal twisting and kinking of the non-metallic line.